bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
Biggles Takes It Rough/plot
Chapter 1: A Visitor Seeks Advice Roderick Macaster, a young man from Canada, approaches Air Commodore Raymond for advice. His grandfather had bought over the remote island of Tola in the Western Isles of Scotland, with the intention of repopulating and developing it but had died before he could do anything about it. Now with his father dead, Rod, as the new owner, planned to resume his grandfathers project. However he soon noticed something strange. All along the west coast, people seemed reluctant to talk about Tola, some even advised him to give up on the project. Undeterred, he had bought a cabin cruiser and sailed to the island himself and there he had heard a light aircraft land and then take off from the beach. An aircraft travelling at night without navigation lights is inherently suspicious so Raymond asks Biggles to look into it. Chapter 2: An Unexpected Set-Back Biggles and the Air Police crew fly out to Tola in the Air Police helicopter, the Kestrel. On arrival, they meet Rod who had been sent out a few days earlier carrying most of their supplies in his cabin cruiser. Rod has bad news. Someone has scuttled his boat at the mooring while he was away hunting for some food. They find one of Rod's beer bottles, open and empty, obviously drunk by the saboteur. Biggles sends Algy back in the helicopter to have Scotland Yard dust the bottle for fingerprints. Algy should also ask Raymond for a Royal Navy frogman and salvage team. Meanwhile the others set up camp in an abandoned crofter's cottage. The island also has a castle but Biggles wants to avoid it--if there's someone on the island, he might be there. Chapter 3: First Precautions Bertie and Rod go fishing for food while Biggles and Ginger watch the castle from cover. As night falls, they hear two men passing close to the cottage, obviously searching for Rod and concluding that he must have left. Chapter 4: Curious Developments During the night, Biggles and co. hear noises coming from the beach. At daybreak, Ginger scouts and spots a fishing boat under sail heading away. Chapter 5: Visitors, Welcome and Unwelcome Leaving Bertie to guard the cottage, Biggles and the rest go to examine the beach. Bertie spends the time between fishing for a lobster and watching the castle and is suddenly taken by surprise by a gang of three men. Bertie refuses to answer their questions and the encounter is cut short by the arrival of a R.N. helicopter whereupon the men decide to move off. The navy men manage to recover the supply packages from Rod's boat before returning to base. Meanwhile Bertie tells Biggles whatt happened. They are puzzled. How did the men get to the cottage? They certainly did not come across the moor from the castle. Chapter 6: An Old Highland Trick In the night Ginger awakes to the smell of smoke. There's a large heather fire and the wind is blowing it in the direction of the cottage! Biggles and co. hurriedly gather whatever supplies they can and evacuate. Rod is convinced the heather fire must have been man made. Obviously whoever is occupying the island will stop at nothing to get rid of them. Chapter 7: The Castle Biggles and co. set up a new camp in a small cave. Leaving Ginger on guard, the rest make a reconnaissance along the foot of the cliffs on the coast of the island. They come across a landslide which takes them up the cliff to the rear of the castle. Entering the bulding from the unlocked main door, Biggles gets a whiff of burning peat. He then finds a barleycorn on the floor. Someone has brought barley to the island. But why? Chapter 8: Trapped They explore the castle and are puzzled by seeing a door with a modern lock located under a spiral staircase. Someone has used the castle recently. What is behind the door? They end their search in the castle kitchen. The door behind them slams shut and is bolted! Someone has locked them in! A note under the door tells them they will be released if they agree to leave the island and never come back. Some men come for the answer. Nothing doing, replies Rod. Chapter 9: Troubles for Ginger Ginger waits anxiously for the others but night comes and they are still not back. Something is happening on the beach again--lots of shouting, sounds of something being loaded and unloaded from a boat. The men at the beach discover Ginger and take him prisoner. They bring him to the castle and throw him into the kitchen. Chapter 10: A Mystery Solved Biggles decides that the castle builders must have made a bolt hole in the kitchen otherwise the design would not make defensive sense. They finally find a stone hatch in a recess in the wall. Using Bertie's binocular strap and Rod's belt, they string the stone around a pulley and heave it open. The opening leads to a tunnel. They proceed through it and end up on cliff edge outside the castle. Chapter 11: Hard Going Ginger had heard the men hinting that Biggles and the others had also been captured and so he expects to find them in the kitchen but they are not there! He finds an envelope addressed to Bertie and then discovers the entrance to the tunnel. He follows the tunnel to the cliff edge, then makes his way along the foot of the cliffs back to the harbour where he meets the others. They compare notes. Ginger reports that there are at least 6 men. They had been loading something wooden into a boat and unloading sacks with something soft. He had also heard the men say the boat would be back in two days time. Chapter 12: Biggles Makes a Plan Algy arrives with news: the bottle has the fingerprints of one Neville Norton, an ex-convict who was suspected of helping in the escape of three prisoners. Norton had been in jail for hijacking lorries carrying whisky on the Great North Road. Biggles sends Algy back. With 6 armed men to deal with, he needs Raymond to send reinforcements. Meanwhile he makes a plan to get to the bottom of what is going on in Tola. Algy would fly everyone to another cottage in view of the castle. They would make a show of setting up camp for Rod and then the others would appear to depart in the helicopter. But Algy would drop Biggles, Bertie and Ginger on the beach out of sight of the castle. The gang in the castle would be certain to seek out Rod, believing he is alone. Biggles and the rest would then go along the foot of the cliffs and steal inside the castle to investigate. Chapter 13: Behind the Locked Door The plan works smoothly. The gang moves out in force to confront Rod. Only one man Larkin is left in the castle. Biggles captures him and then shoots the lock of the door off. Inside are the castle cellars, converted into an illicit whisky distillery! In retrospect, with the smell of peat and the barley, it should have been obvious. Larkin confesses that he had been employed by Norton because of his experience distilling whisky. Besides the still, the castle also served as a refuge for fugitives from the law. The entire operation had been going on for 6 months and had been bank-rolled by a night club owner in London who also owned the light plane. Chapter 14: Breathing Space Biggles and the others walk back openly across the moor to Rod's cottage. They meet Norton and the other gang members returning to the castle. Biggles tells them curtly that they are under arrest and that they are to stay in the castle. Norton puts up an act of bravado but the gang soon ends up arguing. Back at the cottage, Rod tells them that the gang had, as expected, come to confront him. At first they had offered to buy Tola from him. When that failed, they had resorted to threats but had to beat a hasty retreat when they spotted Biggles and the others coming from the direction of the castle. Chapter 15: Buttoned Up The gang tries sniping and keeping Biggles and co. holed up in the cottage but it doesn't last long. Algy returns in the helicopter with Gaskin and a police sergeant. There is also a Navy salvage tug approaching. The gang surrenders and is taken prisoner. The boat is later arrested as is the night club owner in London. Rod decides to continue with his project to develop the island, with a standing invitation to the others but Bertie tells him he prefers his islands warm, with bananas. Category:Plot summaries